THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION, PART III

The middle period of the Haitian Revolution is the story of
Leger
Felicite Sonthonax, French Commissioner to Saint-Domingue, and the rise of
Toussaint Louverture.

Sonthonax worked tirelessly to save the colony for France. Toussaint
worked tirelessly to free the slaves. Each was jealous of his power. It
was inevitable that they would be in conflict, and Toussaint ultimately
won this confrontation, shipping Sonthonax back to France. However,
before he left Sonthonax assured his position in Haitian history by
abolishing slavery from Saint-Domingue. Toussaint, after initially
fighting against the French and for the Spanish, came back over to the
French defeating not on the Spanish, but also driving the British out of
Saint-Domingue.

The French, fearing Toussaint's growing power and suspecting that he had
sentiments toward independence, sent special agent Thomas Hedouville to
save the colony for France. douville managed to hammer home the fatal
wedge between Toussaint and mulatto general, Andre Rigaud. Hedouville,
safely back in France, could watch the unfolding civil war between
Toussaint and Rigaud.

Part III

Toussaint and Independence

Thomas Hedouville fled Haiti on Oct. 22, 1798. Toussaint was the leading
figure in the colony and playing both ends of his spectrum -- apparent
loyalty to France; apparent sympathy to the United States' pushing Saint-
Domingue toward independence. Not only was the U.S., herself a newly
free nation, a model that Toussaint might follow, but Secretary of State
Timothy Pickering was presenting a very friendly and supportive position.
Finally, Toussaint felt much more comfortable with the small, fledgling
United States than with either Britain or France. The primary interest
which Toussaint felt toward the United States was the better deal Saint-
Domingue could get in trade. France imposed the "exclusif" on Saint-
Domingue. Under this law of colony to metropole, Saint-Domingue could only
trade with France, who then had the power to set the prices. Further,
manufacturing of finished goods from the raw farm products was forbidden
by France. All manufacturing of Saint-Domingan goods was reserved for
France. The United States, on the other hand, paid a more competitive
price for Saint-Domingan goods and placed no restrictions on their form.
Even the landowners supported trade with the United States. At first it
would seem that this was not in their economic interests. Sonthonax had
freed the slaves and Toussaint would certainly uphold this emancipation.
This meant that the former slaves became paid field hands, and the
landowners would lose approximately 50% of their income to the government
and to farm labor. Nonetheless, the 50% that they could earn on the free
market was more than 100% of what France was willing to pay under the
exclusif.

Nonetheless, Toussaint kept up the appearance of loyalty to France and
appointed Philippe Roume, French agent in Santo Domingo, to replace
Hedouville as France's representative in Saint-Domingue. Toussaint's
loyalty to France was not all posturing. There was a very strong call
of culture from France. This was especially true among the affranchais,
the blacks and mulattos freed before the general emancipation. They
wanted to separate themselves from the slaves. They had adopted French
culture and customs as their identity, scorning anything African. They
spoke French, dressed in European fashion, practiced the Catholic
religion and, in general, idealized France and French culture. Even
Toussaint was pulled in this direction and had a strong bond to France.

Roume, Toussaint and Rigaud

Roume continued the work of Hedouville, fostering the growing conflict
between Toussaint and Rigaud. Rigaud, an extreme mulatto chauvinist,
worried France because of his readiness to kill the whites and blacks.
Toussaint's independence tendencies frightened the French too, so they
sought the safety of keeping either Rigaud or Toussaint from having
complete power. However, by pushing Rigaud and Toussaint into civil
war, France assured itself that one or the other was likely to emerge a
stronger person from his victory.

In January, 1799 the formal break came in a dispute over who ruled
Petit and Grand Goave. Roume had included the towns in Toussaint's
authority, but Rigaud walked out of the meeting and civil war was
inevitable. By June, Toussaint pressured Roume into declaring Rigaud in
rebellion.

The War of Knives

On June 16, 1799 Rigaud attacked Petit Goave, putting many people to death
with the sword. It was from Rigaud's violence with the sword that this
civil war got it's name -- The War of Knives.

The first five months of war were characterized by gruesome excesses on
both sides. Finally, by mid-November, the war centered on Rigaud's
stronghold at Jacmel, defended by Alexander Petion. Jean-Jacques
Dessalines was the besieging general for Toussaint. Dessalines was to
become the first president, then emperor of free Haiti in 1804, and
Petion was to become the president of The Republic of Haiti in 1807.
On March 11, 1800 Jacmel fell, virtually ending Rigaud's resistance.
Nonetheless, he hung on until July, finally fleeing to France until
he returned as part of Napoleon's invasion force in 1802.

Toussaint had a reputation for clemency and avoiding unnecessary
bloodshed. But, he appointed the blood thirsty and violent
Dessalines as pacifier of the south. Dessalines butchered many
mulattos (the estimates range from 200 to 10,000!). When Toussaint
finally halted the massacre he reportedly said: "I did not want this!
I told him to prune the tree, not to uproot it."

The Conquest of Santo Domingo

By August, 1800 Toussaint was ruler of all Saint-Domingue and no
foreign power was on Saint-Domingue soil. He was governor general of
the whole colony. However, Santo Domingo, present day Dominican
Republic, was an intolerable situation to him. The Spanish had ceded
Santo Domingo to the French in the Treaty of Bale on July 22, 1795.
Nonetheless, the Spanish never turned the colony over to the French,
and the French, unsure of Toussaint's loyalties, never pressed the
issue. Spain's presence in Santo Domingo was in France's interest.
They could keep an eye on Toussaint. But he now set out to claim
France's (and his own) authority over the entire island of
Hispaniola.

After initial resistance on the part of Roume, who, recall, had been
the French agent in Santo Domingo before Toussaint appointed him to
the Saint-Domingue post, Roume was pressured into approving the
unification movement. However, Spanish Captain-General Don Joaquin
Garcia y Moreno was unwilling to turn over command to black Haitians.
He prepared to resist, and his resistance gave Roume the courage to
rescind his order. This gave Toussaint a pretext to charge Roume
with disloyalty to France -- after all, France owned Santo Domingo by
treaty -- and Roume was held prisoner for nearly a year.
Meanwhile Toussaint massed his troops for the invasion of Santo
Domingo. He encountered only tentative resistance and entered the
capital, Santo Domingo City on Jan. 26, 1801. He quickly
consolidated his power and emerged as the governor-general of
Hispaniola.

Toussaint's Constitution: The Document
that Tweaked Napolean

On July 26, 1801 Toussaint published and promulgated a new
constitution for Saint-Domingue which abolished slavery, but did allow
the importation of free blacks to work the plantations. The
constitution recognized the centrality of sugar plantations to the
Saint-Domingue economy, and accepted Roman Catholicism as the state
religion. Perhaps two of the most significant items were that
Toussaint was governor-general for life and that all men from 14 to
55 years of age were in the state militia. Nonetheless, the
constitution professed loyalty and subservience to France. The most
galling thing for Napoleon was that Toussaint published and
proclaimed the constitution without prior approval from France and
the First Consul.

Thus by July of 1801 Toussaint had emerged as the leading figure in
Saint-Domingue, and seemed headed toward declaring an independent
republic. He had defeated the Spanish and British, maneuvered the
French Commissioners out of the colony, defeated Andre Rigaud in a
Civil War, taken possession of the eastern portion of the island,
eradicated slavery on the entire island and promulgated a
constitution in which he was declared governor general for life.

Both Britain and the United States treated with Toussaint as though
he were the head of an independent state, though Toussaint's
constitution and public demeanor claimed that he was a loyal
French citizen who had saved the colony for France.

Virtually no one believed Toussaint's claims of loyalty to France.
Britain and the United States wanted to deal with Toussaint to ensure an
end of French privateering from Saint-Dominguan waters. Both nations hoped
to contain the slave rebellion to Saint-Domingue alone. Both nations
strove to out do one another in establishing trade relations with
Toussaint's government, in defiance of France's regulations for the
colony. Thus Napoleon might well be excused if he took with a healthy
dose of salt Toussaint's claims of being a loyal son and protector of
French rights in Saint-Domingue.

For Napoleon, the die was cast. "This gilded African," as he called
Toussaint, would have to go. Bonaparte chafed at the power of the black
first consul, but there was little he could do while France was at war
with Britain. However, on Oct. 1, 1801 France and Britain signed a peace
treaty and Napoleon's hands were free to deal with Toussaint.

It is important to note that Bonaparte's personal detestation of
Toussaint was only one factor in his decision to retake Saint-Domingue to
more trustworthy French rule. The French Directory, before Napoleon's
coup d'etat of Nov. 9, 1799, had already set a West Indian policy in
which Saint-Domingue was the center piece. Napoleon inherited this foreign
policy and inherited the constant political pressure of the French
planters who had been disenfranchised by the liberation of the slaves.
Bonaparte needed the wealth of Saint-Domingue and there seemed a grave
danger that Toussaint would lead the colony toward independence. All of
these issues, and others, weighed in Bonaparte's decision to launch an
invasion against his own governor-general of Saint-Domingue.

The Leclerc Invasion

Once committed, Napoleon sent a well-outfitted troop of 12,000 soldiers
under the leadership of his brother-in-law, General Charles Leclerc. In
Leclerc's invasion force Toussaint was going to have to deal with many
old enemies including Alexander Petion and Andre Rigaud.

Napoleon gave Leclerc a set of secret instructions which demanded Leclerc
give his word of honor about many things and then violate it. The
general plan was to first promise the black leadership places of
authority in a French-dominated government. Then, once having
established control, to move to the second stage of arresting and
deporting any black leaders who seemed troublesome, especially Toussaint
Louverture. The third and final stage was not only to disarm all the
blacks, but to return the colony to slavery and the pre-Revolutionary
colonial state. Virtually no one in Saint-Domingue was fooled by Leclerc's
protestations of benevolent purpose.

On Feb. 2, 1802 Leclerc arrived in the bay of Cap Francois, the city
governed and defended by Henri Christophe, one of Toussaint's most
important generals, and later on Haiti's second president and first and
only king. Christophe would not allow the French to disembark, and
prepared to burn the city to the ground if they tried. Leclerc pressed
the issue and, true to his word, Christophe torched this Paris of the
Americas. The black armies retreated to the interior to fight a guerilla
war and Leclerc took over a huge pile of ashes. The final stage of the
Haitian Revolution had begun.

The Leclerc Campaign

Phase 1: Crete-a-Pierrot

Leclerc's forces quickly took most of the coastal towns, though Haitians
burned many of them before they retreated. Eventually a decisive moment
came as Dessalines and his second in command, Lamartiniere, were asked to
hold the small former British fort, Crete-a-Pierrot, an arsenal of the
Haitians.

Both sides claimed victory. It sort of depends on what measure one
uses. The French ended up with the fort, but they lost twice as many men
as the Haitians, and were shocked to discover how well the blacks could
fight in a pitched battle. The Haitians took great solace in their
ability to hold off the French for so long. For the rest of the war they
used Crete-a-Pierrot as a rallying cry. After abandoning the fort, the
Haitians retreated into the Cahos mountains and fought a guerrilla war
from then on.

Phase 2: Surrender

By April 26 Christophe and his troops surrendered to Leclerc. Toussaint
followed on May 1st. Even though things had not gone as Napoleon
planned, within two months Leclerc had achieved Napoleon's first
goal--pacification of the leaders. Now Leclerc was free to implement
phase 2 -- the arrest and deportation of "trouble makers."

The Arrest and Deportation of Toussaint Louverture

After Toussaint's surrendered, he ostensibly retired to his plantation at
Enery to live out his days. However, there is a good deal of historical
controversy about this. Some argue that Toussaint immediately began to
plot anew against the French. I really don't know which way the factual
evidence leans, but the logic of the situation leads me to suspect that
these charges against Toussaint were true. First of all it is not like
Toussaint to simply walk away and abandon the struggle of the past 10
years. Further, he had to have suspected that the French would reinstate
slavery and the old colonial system. Again, it's not like Toussaint to
quietly acquiesce in such a turnabout. Finally, he must have known how
weakened the French were becoming from the ravages of yellow fever. How
long and how seriously could the French fight with only a fraction of
their men?

But all of this is mere logical speculation, not factual knowledge. What
we do know are the details of Leclerc's dishonorable subterfuge to arrest
and deport Toussaint. On June 7 Toussaint received a message from French
General Brunet to meet with him at a plantation near Gonaives. Brunet
assured Toussaint that he'd be perfectly safe with the French, who were,
after all, gentlemen!

Shortly after arriving at the plantation he was arrested and shipped off
to prison in France. Toussaint was taken to Fort de Joux, a cold, damp
prison near the Swiss border. Toussaint soon withered away and died on
April, 7, 1803. So much for French honor!

The Final Up-Rising and French Defeat

The dishonorable treatment of the aging Toussaint was not only a moral
outrage, but a practical error of irreversible scope. The Haitians were
so incensed, and recognized that if Toussaint could be so treated, so
could anyone else. The masses realized the French must be defeated once
and for all.

Leclerc made a second tactical blunder upon the heels of Toussaint's
arrest. He immediately began a disarmament campaign, planning to disarm
all the blacks. The net effect was to open the eyes of many and drive
thousands back under the banner of the revolution. From June to October,
1802 Leclerc's soldiers carried on this mainly unsuccessful campaign.

During this period both Dessalines and Christophe were working with the
French. Dessalines was a particularly vicious warrior against the
rebels. However, there is a strong case to be made that he was more
interested in his own position of power than anything else.

Working with the French he could have it both ways. On the one hand, if
the French prevailed he was becoming increasingly indispensable to
whatever order prevailed, thus assuring his position there. On the other
hand, he was capturing and killing rebel leaders. Thus if the revolution
were to once again catch fire, he was in a position to bolt the French
and take up leadership of the rebels, which is exactly what he did.
Haitian independence and black rule seem to have been honestly desired by
Dessalines. But, first and foremost he wanted Jean-Jacques Dessalines to
be an important power in whatever government prevailed in Saint-Domingue.

As the situation deteriorated for the French, Dessalines, Christophe,
Petion and Clairveaux all conspired with rebel leaders. On Oct. 13,
1802, Petion and Clairveaux deserted to the rebels. Christophe and
Dessalines followed and within days only Cap Francois, Port-au-Prince and
Le Cayes were fully in French hands. The final battle had begun.

The Arcahaye Conference and the Death of Leclerc

Nov. 2, 1802 the rebel leaders met at Arcahaye, a small village south of
St. Marc. The leaders elected Dessalines as rebel commander-in-chief and
chose the red and blue flag as their banner. The story is that
Dessalines took the tricolor French flag -- a band each of red, blue
and white, and tore out the white, announcing to the cheering assembled
mass that Haiti, too, would drive out the whites. Certainly such a
dramatic symbol, if it actually occurred, would have been an inspiring
and motivating gesture.

On the same day as the Arcahaye conference, Leclerc died of yellow
fever. General Rochambeau took command. He was an able and fearless
commander, and reinforced by another 10,000 troops in mid-November,
carried on the French defense for another year.

By the time of the Arcahaye conference most of the maroons had also come
to see that the French were the true enemy. Prior to this the maroons
had been separated and vacillating, not really joining the revolution,
but fighting an independent war of self-interest wherever and whenever it
served their purposes. But now they joined in unified fashion with the
rest of the Haitians to drive the French from the island for once and for
all, and to preserve the nation as a free, non-slave entity.

Dessalines and Rochambeau

Each side was under the leadership of a capable and ruthless leader.
Each side traded atrocity with atrocity, the particular description of
which are sickening and defy credulity of even those used to human
inhumanity to humans. Torture, rape, brutal murders, mass murders of
non-combatants, mutilation, forcing families to watch the torture, rape
and death of loved ones and on and on. The last year of the Haitian
Revolution was as savage as any conflict one can read of in human
history. Thomas Ott says this had become a war of racial extermination
on both sides.

Despite the ravages of yellow fever and the increasing numbers of
Haitians joining the revolution, Rochambeau's forces made considerable
gains in early 1803. Napoleon, heartened by the return of slavery to
Guadeloupe, sent a further reinforcement of 15,000 troops. Rochambeau
seized the moment to launch a vigorous attack on the rebels.

A New European War Helps Shift the Balance

On May 18, 1803 Europe was again plunged into war, and Britain declared
war on France. Dessalines was now a welcomed ally of Britain who
provided arms and naval support. At the same time this European war
announced the end of reinforcements and supplies for the French. The
conditions were set for a reversal of the fortunes of the revolutionaries.

By the end of October the French were reduced to holding only Le Cap and
were besieged and in danger of starvation. Finally on November 19, 1803
Rochambeau begged for a 10 day truce to allow the evacuation of Le Cap,
thus giving Haiti to the Haitians.

Independence Day, January 1, 1804

After 13 years of revolutionary activity France was formally removed from
the island and Haitian independence declared, only the second republic in
the Americas. The country was in ruins, the masses mainly uneducated and
struggling for survival. The western world's large and interested nations,
the United States, Britain, Spain and, of course, France, were all
skeptical and nervous about an all-black republic. After all, the large
nations were all slave-owning states.

Born in dire straights and struggling, nonetheless the nation came to be
through the efforts of the revolutionaries.

What's left to do? I've taken us up to independence.
The revolution is over. There are many issues of controversy surrounding
the story of the Haitian Revolution. I've tried to present a brief
relatively non-controversial account of the central struggles toward
Haitian independence.

The last essay is this series will address the question:
What were Napoleon's ultimate plans? It is often said that Napoleon was
on his way to invade the United States, or at least to consolidate France's
position in Louisiana. I will try to shed light on the larger plans
of Napoleon's West Indian policy.

There are two other issue which interest me a great deal, and
perhaps I'll tackle them in the near future. They are:

Who really won the revolution: yellow fever or Toussaint,
Dessalines, Christophe and their gallant troops? This is another age-old
debate in Haitian history. I'd like to sort out some of the issues and
arguments and come down squarely in the middle by arguing that both
yellow fever and revolutionary leadership and struggle share importantly
in the final outcome.

Will the real Toussaint Louverture please stand up.
Historians of Haiti usually choose sides. Some say Toussaint was humane,
a brilliant strategist, a mover of people, creator of the nation -- the
first Haitian saint, a hero. Others see a Machiavellian schemer out to
aggrandize his own position no matter what happened to his brother
and sister Haitians. Again, I'd like to sort out the arguments and
shed some light on the WHO of Toussaint Louverture.

But, will I get to these soon? Unlikely. Any of you have any thoughts?